The world is shedding its combat in opposition to malaria, a illness that has a devastating toll in Asia and Africa and is exhibiting up in developed international locations just like the US. A single enterprise choice taken by one of many world’s largest producers of mattress nets greater than 10 years in the past has exacerbated the state of affairs.
Low-cost, sturdy and straightforward to distribute, insecticide-coated mattress nets have for greater than 20 years been a significant device in managing malaria, which causes signs starting from a racking cough to kidney failure, and might kill in lower than 24 hours. Nets don’t simply safeguard the individuals sleeping beneath — their chemical coatings can quell a contagion and cut back mosquito infestation by killing the bugs.